All Things Considered

Commonly referred to as "ATC" and a staple for afternoon commutes, NPR's nationally syndicated afternoon news magazine brings you closer to home with the presence of WAMU's local host.

Since May 3, 1971 All Things Considered has been produced every day from NPR's headquarters in Washington, D.C. Featuring a mix of news, interviews, commentaries, reviews, and offbeat features, "ATC" produces 2 hours of fresh content every day for hundreds of public radio stations around the United States.

Elliott Francis

Local Host, All Things Considered

Francis has worked alongside some of the most influential media executives in the U.S. during his 25 years as a news anchor, including FOX News President and Chairman Roger Ailes, former CNN Executive Vice President Ed Turner, and the founder and former CEO of Johnson Publishing Company, John H. Johnson. In 2002, shortly after joining the ABC news affiliate in Washington DC (WJLA-TV) as the morning co-anchor, Francis was thrust into the rigors of live, non-stop coverage of the DC sniper shootings and investigation, sometimes speaking 8-9 hours unscripted. A skilled interviewer, Francis once convinced singer John Denver to go "on-camera" with details of his upcoming DUI trial.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Washington Sen. Patty Murray, Senate Budget Committee chair and Secretary of the Senate Democratic Conference, talks to Robert Siegel about efforts in the Senate to stave off a government shutdown and pass a continuing resolution to keep the government funded.

Severe drought has forever changed the landscape in New Mexico. Grasslands have been replaced by desert, and ranchers to reduce the number of cattle grazing open fields. Recent rains have brought some relief, but it's not enough to reverse desertification.

Roughly 6 in 10 college-bound high school students who took the SAT in 2013 performed poorly. The sponsor of the test wants to work with schools to help students do better, but some say the group is really concerned with trying to keep the test relevant.

Maryland embraced Obamacare from day one. Next week, the state will launch an ambitious health insurance exchange. President Obama traveled there Thursday to talk about his vision for health care, the law and the middle class.

Documents leaked by former contractor Edward Snowden indicate the NSA may have installed backdoors on encryption products. It's not clear exactly what's going on but the stories have unleashed plenty of fear and loathing in the closed world of encryption researchers.

Amy Thielen knows hash browns. The Minnesotan is a former grill cook who spent many hours flipping those grated potatoes and making sure they had the prefect crisp edge. For today's Found Recipes, Thielen shares the story behind her Glorified Hash Browns, "glorified" because they're accompanied by grilled peppers.

Former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, now leading the Heritage Foundation, has been one of the most influential voices in the budget brinkmanship on Capitol Hill. "There's no question in my mind that I have more influence now on public policy than I did as an individual senator," he says.

The wife of civil rights leader Joseph Lowery has died in Atlanta at age 88. Evelyn Lowery was a civil rights activist alongside her husband. She participated in the historic march from Selma to Montgomery in the 1960s and spent most of her life working for civil and human rights.

As Republicans try to figure out how to defund President Obama's health care law, some members of the party are attacking Obamacare on other fronts, too. For example, one House committee is investigating groups that were contracted to educate people about how to enroll.

City officials are planning to remove a large homeless encampment on the outskirts of downtown. The California city, where 1 in 4 people live below the poverty line, has taken down three other large encampments in recent weeks. The moves have been controversial and displaced hundreds of people.

A doctor who authored the book Wheat Belly claims that changes to modern varieties of wheat have have caused the rise in celiac disease and gluten sensitivity. But other doctors have other theories to explain why wheat makes some people sick.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

New York University's new Shanghai campus is the first Sino-U.S. joint-venture university. Chinese students get a Western education without leaving home. American students get to live and study in China, with many enjoying big breaks on tuition and other costs.

The Malian singer-songwriter finished her latest album, Beautiful Africa, just as war was breaking out in her home country. Traoré says that working as a musician has helped her make peace with a conflicted sense of cultural identity.

Now that the siege at the Nairobi mall has ended, investigators are trying to determine the identity of the attackers, just exactly how many people died in the four-day standoff and how it could have happened.

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